


I Love You

by SamirahTheFalafelQueen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Other, Robot AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 00:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9408521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamirahTheFalafelQueen/pseuds/SamirahTheFalafelQueen
Summary: Leo!Robot AU





	

“Welcome to your new home.” 

Rosa Valdez had bought a new robot from the Robotics Hub. It was a young boy with dark curly hair, brown eyes, Latino features and most noticeable, he had a small scrawny figure. He almost looked like a young relative of hers, so she named him Leo Valdez, after her nephew who had died in a fire along with his mother. 

Leo looked around, his head whirling. He took in the dark red walls, and the many beautiful artworks that hung from them, installing the memory of the house into his head. He would need it if he was going to stay here long. The floor had been polished quite well, which made Leo wonder if there was another robot in the house. From his early memories, he knew that robots were used quite often as housekeepers, and Rosa did not look like someone who would spend all over her time cleaning the floor. 

Folding her arms, Rosa looked at Leo with curious eyes. “You’re quite quiet, aren’t you? You won’t be a problem then. I’m going to set you a few rules; you are a robot, and robots do not matter. Get that? You are not to answer back to me, or I will have you pulled apart. Understand?”

The command switched an answer inside Leo’s head, making him say, in his coarse voice, “yes, ma’am”. 

“Good. Now I will take you to meet my other AI. He’s mute, so be sensitive, got it?”

Her voice was powerful, yet Leo couldn’t help but feel at ease. They had given him an addon feature; the power to understand basic emotions. He felt...safe. He felt… at home.

* 

Festus was the name of the other robot. He was smaller than Leo, who was 5’6. It was incredibly hard to communicate with him at the start because Leo had not installed the information on sign language, but once downloaded Leo began to have an understanding on what friendship was, as he had many conversations with him.

Leo was in charge of small things, like cleaning dishes, cleaning the floor, bringing in the groceries. Festus would tell him how to do things correctly, helping him along the way. Leo was grateful even though he could easily just download the manuals and guides. He was glad that he had someone to tell him what to do. He might be intelligent, but he was a new robot, and Rosa hadn’t bothered with downloading anything into him, meaning Leo had to do everything by himself. 

One day Leo had been doing the laundry. He was upstairs, folding Rosa’s clothes. He felt useful. He was going to surprise Festus with a small dragon he had crafted while doing origami the night before. Before he was finished with his job, however, Leo heard a loud noise. Thinking it was an intruder, he went to check what it was. Standing by the stairs was Rosa, looking downstairs where Festus was getting up. This made Leo confused, and he cocked his head to the left.

“He fell by accident,” Rosa pouted, as she crossed her arms. There was something in her eyes that Leo couldn’t seem to register. 

Leo helped Festus by checking nothing damaging had happened. 

* 

Leo started to notice small things after. Festus sometimes would have parts missing, like a hand, sometimes his feet, and the worse - his eyes. Leo would find him finding them, and putting them on without a sound. He started to wonder, so Festus told him. Rosa didn’t like him. She didn’t like robots. But got them anyway, because who doesn’t want free servants? Sometimes she would hit him, pull things off in anger. Robots don’t feel pain, Festus had signed. And Rosa knew that

That was when Leo found out that Rosa had taken away his voice. He no longer felt safe. 

He saw paintings for Rosa’s sister. Leo wondered why there was always a figure cut out from those paintings, but when confronted, Rosa would exclaim that it was none of his business. Festus then told him that it was Leo Valdez - the real Leo Valdez, who had died in the fire. Rosa blamed him for killing his sister. 

Why did Rosa call him Leo? 

* 

Rosa had new neighbours; the Graces. Piper and Jason seemed friendly enough to Leo. They greeted him with a hearty hello, and smiled softly at him. Nothing like the treatment that Rosa had been giving him. Five weeks into his arrival, Rosa started to snarl at him, wondering why she ever bought him, why she ever programmed him as Leo. He tried to apologise every time, but what had he done wrong? Rosa would snapped at him, always throwing stuff at him. Perhaps she was just stressed?

“Why won’t your robots join us?” Piper asked during dinner. Leo and Festus were standing by the door. Rosa gave Piper a disgusted look. “What? Our AI sits with us all the time and tells us about their day.”

“Because they cannot eat, Mrs. Grace,” Rosa explained. “They are just robots. They run on nothing but fuel and commands from their owners.”

Leo noticed the frown that appeared on Jason’s face, like this behaviour was not normal. 

 

*   
“You!” 

Rosa hit him again. 

“Will not!” 

He couldn’t feel pain but he could sense it. He understood that this was meant to be painful. 

“Answer back to me!” 

He felt something break inside him. A piece had gone astray. His body went limp. 

Rosa called Festus to go fix Leo. She grabbed a glass, pouring some alcohol into it, and drank it while looking at the painting of her sister.

*

Festus had a plan. He told Leo everything about his escape mission. There was a secret passage behind the kitchens. All Festus needed to do was distract Rosa for a while so that she didn’t need to call the two. Then they would disappear into a world where they could grow to their full potential. Delete the data of ever being Rosa’s servants. 

Leo had saw Piper and Jason’s AI over the fence. He had been putting out the laundry. 

“Hello,” he said to Leo. “How are you.” 

He seemed happy. Leo wanted happy.

But Festus hadn’t been counting on Piper and Jason coming over, so Leo and Festus both had to stand by the door again, waiting for the humans to finish their snacks and discussions so that they could leave. Festus began to grow impatient. So Festus signed to Leo that he could leave by himself. Festus would create a distraction. 

“No,” Leo whispered furiously. “I’m not leaving you.”

Festus was already an old robot. He was rusting away. He had been a part of the Valdez family for a long time. It was only right.

“I won’t allow it, Festus, you’re my only friend!”

How could robots have friends? They had mindless brains. Leo didn’t care. This feeling he had felt real, and it was. Robots couldn’t couldn’t have feelings, but he was programmed with them. 

Festus signed to everyone that Leo was going to bring in dessert, and Rosa who was always the one to please the crowd, smiled and ushered him to go get it. One of the rules were to not talk back. Leo had to go get the dessert. He had to. But when he was in the kitchen he was left with a problem. He should probably get the dessert, but Festus would be disappointed. All this planning for no reason. Leo didn’t realise how long he had been standing there.

Rosa had come storming in. It had been five minutes. He had been late. 

“Leo Valdez, what do you think you’re doing?” She hissed, pulling Leo’s ear. “Did I, or did I not tell you to go get the dessert? You’re making me look like a fool. You always did make me look like a fool. The stupid little boy who can’t do anything right.” 

Rosa then slapped Leo around the head, thinking that would make him work. 

“Um, Rosa.”

At the door was Piper, the woman from nextdoor. From the look on her face, Leo registered that she had seen what Rosa had done. It didn’t hurt though. Why did she look so concerned? She was a human, and he was a robot. He was nothing more than a machine. 

Suddenly Festus came running in, knocking Rosa onto the floor. He opened the secret door that led to the tunnel, and pushed Leo inside. Leo resisted. He resisted very much. All he saw before the door close was Piper holding down Rosa, while Festus locked the door. He signed the last thing that Leo would ever see from him; “I love you”.


End file.
